The air in the subterranean vaults of Ophelius Hall was radically different from that of the upper corridors.
Down here, where the moonlight could not reach, there were no luxurious crimson carpets or heavy crystal chandeliers.
There was only cold stone, dampness entrenched in the thick masonry walls, and a deep, constant electrical hum emanating from the intricate runic matrices carved into the walls: the building’s central magical defense system.
Lortelle Kehelland, Sylvania’s commercial prodigy, stood leaning against a heavy solid oak bookshelf, breathing heavily.
Her fine, tailored coat was torn at the shoulder, and a trickle of blood trailed slowly down her cheek, staining her pale skin.
Her mana reserves were at a dangerously low level.
She had tried to use her frost spells to carve a path to the exit, but the confined space and her enemies’ perfectly coordinated ambush had neutralized every single one of her evasive tactics.
In front of her, blocking the only runic steel door that provided access to the stairs, stood the Head Maid, Ellis.
Around her, forming an impeccable semicircle, deployed an elite squad of six combat maids armed with short rapiers.
But the real threat wasn’t the maids.
It was Ellis herself.
The Head Maid had unsheathed a slender, lethal silver rapier.
Furthermore, her free hand rested on a stone pedestal in the center of the room, its gears glowing with an intense red light.
Ellis was not only a formidable swordswoman, but she had also taken manual control of the vault’s defensive systems.
From the walls and the ceiling emerged arcane cannons of condensed energy, all aiming directly at Lortelle’s chest.
“Let us not prolong this more than necessary, Miss Lortelle,” Ellis said, her voice having lost any trace of servitude to become purely martial.
“You know perfectly well that your ice spells lack the power to pierce a defensive formation backed by this building’s magical grid.
Surrender and hand over your artifacts.”
Lortelle let out a dry, bitter laugh, wiping the blood from her cheek with the back of her hand.
“I made a novice’s most basic mistake, Ellis,” Lortelle spat, her eyes shining with fury and frustration.
“I trusted you.
I revealed my plan to buy the ledger and overthrow Elte.
I believed that the gold I offered you for your orphanages would secure your silence and your loyalty.”
Ellis did not look away.
She maintained a firm posture, the tip of her sword pointing toward the floor in a perfect guard.
“You offered me gold, it is true.
And I was on the verge of accepting it,” Ellis admitted.
“But you yourself taught me to evaluate long-term risks.
When you told me your plan, I went to Mister Elte Kehelland.
I explained what you were attempting to do.
He not only matched your offer of gold, but he guaranteed me the permanent political and financial protection of the company…
in exchange for luring you to this vault and neutralizing you using the hall’s own system.”
Lortelle felt the floor beneath her feet vanish.
Hubris had been her downfall.
She forgot that Elte—the man who had ordered the deaths of her biological parents only to raise her as a mere tool for the company—was a monster a thousand times more ruthless and calculating than she was.
Elte had weaponized her own trust in Ellis to corner her and eliminate her little rebellion at the root.
‘I’ve lost,’ Lortelle thought, feeling her knees finally threaten to give way.
She would die down here or, in the best-case scenario, be dragged before Elte and locked away for life, betrayed by her own naivety on the chessboard.
She closed her eyes, bracing herself for the imminent impact from the wall-mounted arcane cannons.
Meanwhile, at the foot of the service stairs, in absolute darkness, Ed Rothtaylor evaluated the heavy oak and runic steel door that blocked the way to the main vault.
It was sealed from the inside.
His mind processed the situation with mathematical coldness.
Elte Kehelland was outside with armed guards.
Ellis had betrayed Lortelle.
The merchant who financed his stay and ensured a comfortable life at the academy was being ambushed.
Losing his primary source of income was logistically unacceptable.
But beyond the money, Ed was deeply disgusted by the method.
In his former life as a commander and absolute leader in a martial world, he had witnessed and suffered countless political betrayals.
He despised those who used trust as a weapon to stab someone in the back.
He didn’t feel an overwhelming emotional devotion, but he did possess an ironclad sense of ownership and responsibility: Lortelle was his business partner, she fell under his indirect protection contract, and no one was going to destroy one of his assets right under his nose.
Ed adjusted his grip on the hilt of his black katana.
He channeled all the kinetic energy of his orange mana directly into the sole of his right foot, combining the pure physical pressure of his years of martial arts with the Wind Essence technique.
His boot slammed into the exact center of the heavy oak door with the force of a siege ram.
The sound was deafening.
The thick magical steel bolts of the vault snapped instantly.
The wood exploded into hundreds of splinters, and the massive door flew into the room, crashing violently against the stone floor and kicking up a dense cloud of dust.
The squad of maids froze, breaking their formation against Lortelle to turn toward the entrance, raising their rapiers.
Ellis took a step back, frowning and tightening her hand over the control pedestal.
From amidst the suspended dust, the figure of Ed Rothtaylor emerged.
His face maintained an expression of absolute calm, devoid of any visible emotion, but the mana pressure radiating from him filled the room.
Lortelle, leaning against the bookshelf, opened her eyes wide.
The blonde boy, who had absolutely no contractual obligation to risk his life descending into a closed trap, had breached the underground.
“Intruder!” Ellis shouted, regaining her martial composure.
“Defense systems on auto!
Maids, attack!”
The six maids moved in perfect synchronization, flanking the entrance.
At the same time, the arcane cannons on the walls swiveled mechanically, aiming directly at Ed, and began to glow with unstable energy.
It took Ed one second to analyze the field.
Six close-combat enemies, a commanding swordswoman, and heavy magical artillery.
He took a step forward, and his figure seemed to blur.
Using the Mirage Step, he vanished from the frontal view of the first two maids.
He appeared on their flank, and with a fluid, brutally economical movement, he used the heavy scabbard of his katana to strike the backs of both their knees, collapsing them instantly before knocking them out with precise strikes to the nape of the neck.
But before he could advance toward the third, the wall-mounted arcane cannons fired.
Three thick beams of purplish mana sliced through the air toward his position.
Ed prepared to evade, but the air pressure in the vault changed drastically.
A violent gust of hot wind burst through the threshold of the shattered door.
“Ed, don’t you dare leave me behind!”
Yenika Fael sprinted into the vault, her face still slightly flushed from the incident in the upper hallway, but her eyes burning with determination.
She hadn’t hesitated for a second to follow him into danger after hearing the explosion of the door.
With a graceful wave of her hands, Janica channeled her immense spiritual power.
“Wall of Earth!
Tarkan, suppress the magic!”
Thick pillars of solid rock surged from the vault floor just in time, intercepting the lethal arcane beams of the defense system with a deafening crash.
Simultaneously, tiny sparks from the Lord of Flames flew toward the wall-mounted cannons, overheating their runic circuits and causing them to pop in a harmless shower of mechanical sparks.
The hall’s magical defense system had just been completely neutralized in a matter of seconds by the academy’s greatest tamer.
“Focus on the swordswoman, I’ll handle the rest of the maids!” Janica yelled, launching blasts of dense wind that pinned the three remaining maids against the wall, immobilizing them completely.
The dynamic of the battle had shifted in the blink of an eye.
Ed didn’t waste time giving verbal thanks; his tactical mind seized the massive opening Janica had just created for him.
Stripped of the building’s defenses and her subordinates, Ellis gritted her teeth and lunged straight at Ed.
Her technique with the rapier was flawless, fast, and precise.
She launched a lethal thrust aimed directly at the young man’s throat.
Ed didn’t even fully unsheathe his weapon.
He exposed a mere inch of the black tungsten blade, using the thick metal scabbard to parry Ellis’s silver thrust with a sharp clack.
The Head Maid, surprised by her opponent’s brute force and reaction speed, tried to twist her wrist for a horizontal slash.
It was a fatal mistake against a veteran of countless duels.
Ed closed the distance in a fraction of a second, invading the woman’s personal space.
With his left hand, he firmly grabbed Ellis’s armed wrist and applied a violent, precise torque.
The rapier fell to the floor with a metallic clatter.
Before Ellis could retreat, Ed swept her legs with his right foot, dropping her heavily against the vault’s stone tiles.
In a single fluid motion, Ed pressed his knee onto the fallen woman’s chest and drove the metal end of his katana’s scabbard directly against her windpipe, applying just enough pressure to restrict her breathing without killing her.
The fight was over.
The vault fell into a dense silence, broken only by the gasps of the immobilized maids and the fizzing of the arcane cannons destroyed by Janica’s spirits.
Ed slowly stood up, leaving Ellis coughing and defeated on the floor, completely disarmed and neutralized.
He sheathed his weapon with a loud click and walked over, stopping in front of Lortelle.
The young merchant was on the floor, breathing heavily.
Her usual mask of arrogance was gone, replaced by a look of profound disbelief.
She had processed the boy’s brutal efficiency and the spiritual mage’s perfectly timed intervention.
Ed evaluated her in silence.
He saw the cut on her face, her torn clothes, her evident exhaustion.
With a measured movement, he crouched down in front of her.
He removed his right glove and extended his clean hand.
“Can you walk, Lortelle?” Ed asked.
His tone was serene, professional, devoid of the slightest hostility.
“The upper perimeter is a mess, but Janica has neutralized the weapons down here.
We have to move before the professionals outside arrive.”
Lortelle stared at the extended hand.
The boy wasn’t demanding more money, nor was he boasting about her rescue.
He was simply there, solid and immovable.
A strange, warm feeling bloomed in the merchant’s chest.
She extended her trembling, dust-stained hand and gripped Ed’s hand tightly.
Feeling his firm grip pulling her to her feet, Lortelle felt her fear completely evaporate.
He didn’t pull away immediately, holding her by the elbow until he was sure she had regained her balance.
“You…
had no obligation to do this, Ed.
Your contract only specified guarding the second floor,” Lortelle whispered, her voice stripped of its usual melodic lilt, exposing a genuine fascination.
“Why did you come?”
Ed looked her in the eyes with the same imperturbable calm as always.
“A good investor never lets anyone destroy their best asset on the board, Lortelle,” Ed replied, gently releasing her arm.
“You are the person in this academy who guarantees me constant funds and fair deals.
Letting them kill you down here would have been a terrible long-term financial decision.
Besides…
I find Elte’s methods of internal manipulation and betrayal repulsive.
Wipe the blood from your face.
We need to get out of here.”
Lortelle formed a slow smile.
It was no longer the fake smile she used to sell; it was a smile of deep admiration and dark loyalty.
Ed’s pragmatic words held more weight to her than any empty oath of honor.
He had dismantled a death trap and the Head Maid simply because he deemed her valuable.
Janica, who had stepped closer to ensure the maids remained immobilized, let out a small sigh of relief seeing that both were okay, though she couldn’t help but cast a curious glance at the palpable tension between the merchant and Ed. Get faster updates on novelping(.)com.
Lortelle’s mind, sharp as a razor, sparked back to life.
“You’re right, Ed.
My adoptive father thinks he has won,” Lortelle murmured, straightening her back and regaining her natural elegance.
“Elte believes that by locking me in here, thanks to Ellis’s betrayal, he has neutralized my offensive.
His personal guards are surely already surrounding the garden exits.
But I have prepared a financial countermeasure for this exact scenario.”
Lortelle brushed the dust from her coat and looked at Ed with lethal intensity.
“If I can’t overthrow him by buying the ledger, then I will destroy the entire market from the root.
I have a messenger cylinder bearing my seal of absolute authorization.
It contains a direct order for all my loyal managers in the imperial capital.
The order is to liquidate.
To sell absolutely all of the Elte Company’s strategic merchandise reserves at rock-bottom prices before dawn.”
Ed’s face showed no surprise, but his mind instantly grasped the magnitude of the maneuver.
“You’ll flood the market and generate panic.
Prices will plummet, the value of the company’s assets will evaporate.
By noon tomorrow, Elte Kehelland will be besieged by creditors and on the brink of ruin.”
“Exactly,” Lortelle confirmed.
“But there are two logistical problems, Ed.
The first is that the carrier pigeon assigned to that route is in a special cage in my room, in the residential wing of this building.
The second problem is that Elte’s mercenaries are outside waiting to catch me if I try to leave the premises.”
Ed analyzed the tactical map in his mind.
They had to send that message, but Lortelle was the primary target.
If she exposed herself on the academy grounds, she would be captured.
“Do you have an external escape route planned?” Ed asked.
“I have a covert company carriage waiting in the back alley of the gardens,” Lortelle answered quickly.
“I prepared it in advance.
The coachmen are loyal to me.”
The pieces fell perfectly into place.
The counterattack strategy formulated in Ed’s brain in a fraction of a second.
“That is our bait,” Ed declared, staring intently at Lortelle.
“Listen closely.
Elte and his men have surely already located your carriage in the gardens.
We will leave through the back door.
You will get into the carriage, but you will not go to the city.
You will order the coachmen to take off at full speed to draw attention.
Elte’s assassins will follow the carriage, thinking you are fleeing in it.”
Lortelle frowned.
“But if they follow me, they’ll eventually intercept it.”
“You won’t be in it,” Ed interrupted, his tone conveying absolute certainty.
“Before the carriage leaves the shadows of the alley, you will quietly slip out.
You will head straight for the Northern Forest.
You will take refuge in my cabin.
It is the last place Elte and his capital mercenaries would ever think to look for a noble merchant like you.”
Janica, who was listening intently to the tactical planning just a few steps away, opened her eyes wide.
Her face, which had just returned to its normal color, flushed bright red like a ripe tomato all over again.
“I-I-In your cabin?!” Janica squeaked, momentarily losing all of her imposing spiritual mage aura.
“Lortelle is going to go hide in the place where you sleep?!
Alone?!”
Ed sighed slightly, never losing focus on the mission.
“It’s a logistical blind spot, Janica.
No one will look there.
It’s the safest option.”
Ignoring the spirit tamer’s mild romantic panic, Lortelle looked at Ed with deep intrigue.
“If I hide in your camp while the carriage distracts the guards…
what will you do?”
“I will head back inside Ophelius Hall, taking advantage of the fact that Elte’s guards will be chasing an empty carriage,” Ed explained, with ruthless coldness.
“I will go up to your room, confront whoever they left standing guard, and make sure that carrier pigeon flies toward the imperial capital without interruption.”
It was a master plan.
A classic, brutal, and highly efficient misdirection maneuver.
Lortelle felt a lump in her throat.
Ed wasn’t just saving her from death in the basement; he was opening the doors to his own territory to guarantee her survival, while taking on the most dangerous part of the operation himself right in the middle of hostile ground.
“Understood,” Lortelle said, nodding firmly.
The loyalty she felt toward the young man in front of her was now absolute.
Ed turned toward the dark stairs.
He ran his thumb over the guard of his tactical katana, ready for the next phase of the operation.
He nodded toward Janica in a sign of gratitude for the assist.
“Let’s go,” Ed ordered, walking toward the exit.
“The market opens in a few hours, and we have a commercial empire to topple.”